This invention relates generally to the art of forms for casting columns and particularly to the art of flexible forms for casting such columns about pilings.
For a number of years, both wooden and concrete pilings of the type for supporting bridges, docks, and the like in water have been repaired by placing flexible piling jackets about damaged area thereof, injecting a rigidifying liquid substance into a space between the piling jacket and the piling, and allowing the rigidifying agent to harden, thereby filling broken out or rotted areas of the piling and providing a surrounding supporting cylinder therefor. The rigidifying substance is normally a cement mixture made with any one of various fillers. In this application the rigidifying agent will be referred to as grout or concrete interchangeably, each including the other.
A difficulty which has been encountered with piling-jacket systems of the prior art is that many of them require leaving the top ends of the piling jackets open, as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,146 to Lamberton. Such systems have the disadvantage that the top ends of the jackets must be above water or, if they are underwater, movement of water into and out of the top ends adversely affects settling and curing of the grout. Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a piling-jacket system employing a piling jacket whose top end is not open, but rather is closed.
There have been a number of prior-art piling-jacket systems suggested in which top ends of piling jackets have been closed. Two such systems are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,422 to Fredrickson et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,260 to Lamberton. Such systems often involve the extension of a grout-supply hose through a side port into the interior of the jacket for injecting grout therein. In such situations, it is necessary that the grout-supply hose extend to the bottom of the piling jacket when grout is first injected so that the grout must not fall a long distance to the bottom of the jacket. In this respect, if the grout were allowed to fall long distances, it would unduly disintegrate in the water before settling at the bottom of the jacket. As the jacket is filled the hose is pulled upwardly and finally out of the side port. Normally, sufficient grout must be injected into the jacket to fill the jacket above the port, up to the closed top of the jacket, before the hose is pulled out. Thus, when the grout-supply hose is pulled out of the side port, there is a pressure exerted to force the grout out the side port. A number of devices have been employed to prevent grout from passing out through the side port. One such device involves the use of an external flexible sleeve attached about the side port and extending upwardly therefrom. When the grout-supply hose is pulled out of the port, the external sleeve is held vertically above the jacket and grout is allowed to rise therein. The external sleeve is held in this vertical position until the grout hardens, thereby leaving a large vertical spike extending upwardly from a cast column. It is an object of this invention to provide a side port which does not create such an upwardly-extending spike or spur in a column cast with a jacket.
Other piling-jacket systems have used small nipples strategically located along the height of a piling jacket to which a supply hose is attached for injecting grout into the piling jacket at increasingly higher locations. These nipples allow the grout to go in, but do not allow it to come out. Such nipples are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,260 to Lamberton. A difficulty with these nipples is that they make the injection of grout unduly slow in that they are usually small and in that the hose connection must be continually changed as the grout fills the jacket. They are generally inflexible in use and require much time and manpower.
It is an object of this invention to provide a piling-jacket system and method which allows a grout-supply hose to be inserted into a side port and the nozzle end thereof to be raised with the level of grout in the jacket by easily pulling the hose upwardly out of the side port as the level of grout is raised.
A problem which has been encountered in the use of some piling jacket systems in that hoses inserted in side ports thereof are sometimes difficult to pull out of the side ports after grout is inserted into the piling jacket because of pressure caused on the hose by the grout and closure systems at the ports for preventing outflow of grout once the hose is removed. In this regard, one system which has been used for preventing the outflow of grout uses a flexible flap valve attached to the interior surface of the piling jacket which, when the grout-supply hose is removed, is caused by grout flow to flop over the side port and thereby prevent further out flow of the grout. This side port arrangement is augmented by a perforated rigid tube located on the inside of the piling jacket extending the length of the jacket in which the grout-supply hose is inserted after it has been inserted through the side port for guiding the hose down into the jacket. Although this arrangement has the advantage of allowing the grout-supply hose to be easily moved into and out of the piling jacket, it also has the disadvantage of allowing grout to flow out of the piling jacket while the flap is seating and/or when it does not seat properly. Also, the elongated rigid tube which is left in the jacket becomes embedded in the grout once the grout hardens and thereby provides a weakened area of the grout. It is an object of this invention to provide a piling-jacket system which does not allow an undue flow of grout from a jacket when the supply hose is removed therefrom, but yet allows easy insertion and removal of the supply hose without leaving extraneous elements embedded in the grout.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a pile-jacket system having the atributes described above which is inexpensive to manufacture, but yet which is easy to use.